I wanted to post this recipe for two reasons.

1) Um…. yum.

2) To show you that you don’t need spendy equipment or tons of kitchen experience to make fancy pants ravioli from scratch.

Maybe you don’t realise this reading my blog but I don’t own a kitchen aid stand mixer. Or any kind of mixer for that matter. When I bake cakes and cookies and whatnot, I do it using my hands, a wooden spoon and maybe a fork. Yeah. It’s a workout.

I tell you this because it’s easy to read food blogs and think “oh but I couldn’t do that…”. Trust me, you can. If I can do it with my trusty wooden rolling pin and no fancy equipment, so can you.

Although I will say this: if you so happen to already have a pasta crank, please save yourself some sweat and use the damn thing. I built some serious muscle rolling out this pasta and it mine wasn’t quite thin enough. I’m not a martyr…it’s just the way it is. I truly believe you don’t need all that jazzy electrical stuff, but it sure must make things easier.

So are you ready for rich, creamy, bright goat cheese and beets and fresh-as-it-gets pasta pan-fried and sprinkled with poppy seeds for an addictive crunch? Yeah you are.

Beet and Chèvre Ravioli
adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

• 2 medium-sized red beets
• 2 oz. chèvre (goat cheese)
• 1 batch of egg pasta dough (recipe below)
• 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Pierce beets a few times. Place in a baking dish and cover with foil. Roast beets until tender, about 1 hour. Remove from oven and let beets sit until they are cool enough to handle. Peel off skin. Grate beets into a bowl or chop with a food processor. Mix in goat cheese.
2. Divide pasta dough in half (you should have 2 portions altogether). Roll 1 portion into even-shaped rectangles (or run through a pasta crank) until about 1/16 in. thick. Place spoonfuls of filling about an inch apart along one portion of dough. When there is no more room on the dough, dab a little bit of water onto areas between filling (or mist with a spray bottle). Place other portion of dough on top and press to seal. Try to work from the inside out, to avoid air pockets in the ravioli. Cut with a pastry wheel.
3. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add in pasta. Begin heating butter in a pan over medium-high heat. When ravioli have finished cooking (they’re ready once they begin to float), use a slotted spoon to transfer them from the pot to the frying pan. Sprinkle on some poppy seeds and fry until golden on each side. Transfer to a plate. Add some more poppy seeds and freshly grated parmesan cheese before serving.

Egg Pasta Dough

Ingredients

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs
• olive oil if/as needed

Directions

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Crack your eggs into the well and using a fork, beat the eggs and begin to pull flour into the liquid.
2. Once you can no longer mix with a fork, knead dough on a well-floured surface until smooth and elastic (should take 8–10 minutes and your arms will be…sore). If the dough feels a bit dry, add a little olive oil when kneading.
3. Cover dough with a wet tea towel and let rest for 10 minutes.

This recipe will make approximately 2 dozen ravioli. We served ours with white bean puree and were stuffed to the gills.

I spent the weekend in Milwaukee for work and took the rare opportunity of travelling regionally to take Dan with me. We drove the six hours there on Saturday and spent a couple of days exploring together. It was so lovely to spend some time together checking out a new city. We walked (and walked, and walked), tried new beers, visited the awesome Wolski’s tavern and experienced the hospitality of bars on Packers game day serving up free ham sandwiches and crisps to all. Genius.

Other “scenes from…”

scenes from the state fair

scenes from madeline island

scenes from the weekend

scenes from san diego

scenes from seattle

scenes from duluth

I’ve been meaning to share these fritters with you for quite some time but somehow it’s been escaping me. My adventures in Pakistani food last week jolted me into remembering my mad love for cumin, cinnamon, turmeric and the like.

Crunchy on the outside; warm, soft and spicy on the inside; these fritters make a perfect lunch or brunch. The lime yoghurt sauce is such a treat to serve with them, offering a cool reprieve from the spice. Balance, balance, balance.

By the way, yes I know that frying/deep frying can be a pain in the bum (I have the oil-spattered walls to prove it) but it’s worth it here – the fritters only need a few minutes per side to turn into perfect little discs. Serve them alongside a green salad or inside warm pita bread.

Cauliflower and Cumin Fritters with Lime Yoghurt Sauce

From Ottolenghi: The Cookbook (serves 4)

Ingredients

For the fritters

• 1 small cauliflower (about 320g)
• 120g plain flour (1 cup all purpose flour)
• 3 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley plus a few extra leaves to garnish
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 500ml (2 cups) sunflower or other neutral vegetable oil for frying

For the lime yoghurt

• 300g (1 1/4 cups) Greek yoghurt
• 2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro with a couple of leaves reserved to garnish
• grated zest of 1 lime
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Make the yoghurt sauce first by whisking the ingredients (reserving a little oil and sprig of coriander) all together in a bowl. Put aside in the fridge, pour over a little oil and sprinkle with a couple of leaves of coriander to serve.
2. Prepare the cauliflower by removing the leaves and dividing into small florets. Cooking in a large pan of simmering salted water for around 15 minutes until soft. Drain.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together in a bowl the eggs, flour, parsley, garlic, shallots, spices, salt and pepper. When mixed well, add the soft warm cauliflower and stir breaking down the cauliflower into the batter.
4. Heat the sunflower oil (at a depth of 1.5cm) in a wide pan and heat.  When very hot, spoon 3 tbsp worth blobs of batter carefully into the oil to cook.  Avoid overcrowding them, cook maybe 3 at a time spacing them apart with a fish slice.  Fry for 3-4 minutes each side then remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.
5. Serve immediately with the yoghurt sauce.